weekend
Americannoun
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weekends
plural
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the end of a week, especially the period of time between Friday evening and Monday morning.
We spent the weekend at Virginia Beach.
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this period as extended by one or more holidays, days off, or the like, that immediately precede or follow.
We're getting a three-day weekend at Christmas.
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any two-day period taken or given regularly as a weekly rest period from one's work.
I have to work at the hospital on Saturdays and Sundays, so I take my weekends on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
adjective
verb (used without object)
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weekends,
present (3rd person singular)
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weekended,
past participle, past
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weekending
present participle
noun
verb
Usage
What does weekend mean? The weekend is most commonly considered the period between Friday evening and the end of Sunday. More strictly speaking, the weekend is thought to consist of Saturday and Sunday (often regardless of whether the calendar week is considered to begin on Sunday or Monday). In practical terms, the weekend is typically considered to be the period between the end of the workweek (or school week) and the beginning of a new one—which is why most people consider their weekend to start on Friday night, after work or school. Of course, not everyone works a Monday-to-Friday schedule. A person who normally works on the weekend (on Saturday and Sunday) will probably consider any two-day stretch that they don’t have to work as their weekend. Any additional days off on either side of a weekend are often considered part of the weekend. For example, a day off for a holiday on Friday or Monday will result in a three-day weekend. Or you could take off on Monday and Tuesday for a long weekend. Weekend can also be used as an adjective in reference to something that happens on a weekend (as in a weekend session), lasts only for a weekend (as in a weekend trip), or only applies during a weekend (as in weekend hours). Much less commonly, weekend can be used as a verb meaning to spend a weekend somewhere, as in We like to weekend in the Hamptons. This sense can sound a bit fancy or even pretentious (the same thing can be said about summer when it’s used as a verb). The word weekends can be used as an adverb meaning every weekend or on or during weekends, as in I work weekends, so I always miss my son’s Saturday games. Example: I spent the weekend at the beach, but now I have to go back to work.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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weekendsimple
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weekendssimple
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have weekendedperfect
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has weekendedperfect
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am weekendingprogressive
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are weekendingprogressive
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is weekendingprogressive
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have been weekendingperfect progressive
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has been weekendingperfect progressive
Past
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weekendedsimple
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had weekendedperfect
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was weekendingprogressive
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were weekendingprogressive
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had been weekendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of weekend
Explanation
For most of us, the weekend is Saturday and Sunday — the days you don't have to go to school or work. If you've got big weekend plans, time may seem to move extra slowly on Friday. We often take weekends for granted, looking forward to a nice, two-day rest from our weekday responsibilities, but the concept of a weekend is a relatively recent one. After the Industrial Revolution, workers often found themselves laboring six or even seven days a week. You can thank 20th-century labor unions for the modern weekend we know today — it was their activism that eventually standardized the five-day workweek.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They would include half hourly services during weekdays on the Chiltern Main Line between London and Birmingham, as well as more weekend services.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026
The Anthropic CEO’s most recent warnings—in a lengthy essay a weekend ago—helped further inflame a national panic about the dangers of artificial intelligence.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
For the Brazilian, the goal this weekend is clear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
The couple also drew a distinction between the ceremony itself, which was just family, and the rest of the wedding weekend.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
We used to come here almost every weekend when we were younger.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
News of the television tribute follows an announcement last month by Parton’s estate that revealed plans for Dollyfest, a two-day celebration in Nashville and London next year across two consecutive weekends to honor her legacy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
When I was 5, we’d often visit my grandparents on the weekends.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
Some athletes may live with family members, or host them on game weekends when hotel rooms are scarce and expensive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
On weekends, she’d carry them to the laundromat.
From Salon ● Sep. 9, 2026
So on weekends, if Karl hadn’t got anywhere else to go, or anyone else to look after him, they let me bring him into work with me.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
There he weekended last week, driving up from Philadelphia through Valley Forge Park.
From Time Magazine Archive
The good weather gives us more time to write, because we aren’t raking leaves, shoveling snow, having drinks with our editors, or weekending in the Hamptons.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 14, 2022
He is said to have been building a retirement compound in Santiago de Cuba, the island’s second city, while weekending in the mountains where he helped changed the course of history.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2021
And the weekending shopkeepers and miners from La Wallonie, the French-speaking eastern half of the country, headed to Blankenberge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2016
The project, which one observer wryly called “a locally sourced, high-end Levittown for weekending New Yorkers,” will have 26 modernist barns on about five acres each.
From New York Times ● Jan. 16, 2014
Alongside of Shorty, Robinson Crusoe was a tenement-dweller, and Jonah, weekending in the whale, had a perfectly uproarious time; but Shorty thrives on a solitude that is too vast for imagining.
From Roughing it De Luxe by John T. McCutcheon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
